M. David StoneOKI C5200nThe OKI C5200's paper handling is better than that found on most inexpensive color lasers, with banner printing, an optional duplexer, and paper tray options that boost capacity to 930 pages. The 5200 also offers excellent text quality and performance for the price, but it drops the ball on photo quality and graphics.

Graphics and photo quality are below par. Slows down for color printing despite the single-pass engine.

Bottom Line

The OKI C5200's paper handling is better than that found on most inexpensive color lasers, with banner printing, an optional duplexer, and paper tray options that boost capacity to 930 pages. The 5200 also offers excellent text quality and performance for the price, but it drops the ball on photo quality and graphics.

Built around an LED engine, the OKI C5200n ($800 street) is one of the few inexpensive color laser printers that offers single-pass printing and the speed that goes with it. It also offers some unusual but welcome touches, such as banner printing (8.5 by up to 47 inches) and an optional duplexer ($399 list). Unfortunately, the output quality for graphics and photos is far less impressive than the speed. But the reality for color lasers today is that among high speed, high quality, and low cost, you get to pick only two.

Physical setup is typical for this class of color laser, with four toner cartridges to install. The hardest part is moving the printer, which is hefty, at 13.6 by 16.7 by 22.1 inches (HWD) and 55 pounds. Setting it up on a network doesn't require any network expertise. The setup program takes care of everything from finding the printer on the network to installing the driver.

Predictably, given that Oki Data is the only manufacturer who builds low-cost color lasers around a single-pass engine, the C5200n's performance was extremely good for a color laser in the $1,000-and-under category. It would be even better if the engine didn't slow down noticeably when printing in color, but the slowdown is by design, with an engine rating of 24 pages per minute (ppm) for monochrome and 16 ppm for color. The total time for our business applications suite was 10 minutes 35 seconds. By comparison, the Editors' Choice HP LaserJet 4650n, which costs twice as much, took 9:27. And the $600 Samsung CLP-550 took 24:44.

The C5200n's output quality was excellent for text, with more than half the fonts we test with easily readable at 4 points and no fonts requiring anything larger than 8 points. But photos came out merely fair, which is a lower ranking than most color lasers earn; image quality was good enough for handouts or company newsletters, but not for more demanding needs. Graphics offer fully saturated, eye-catching colors that give a good first impression. That impression changes drastically with a longer look, though, thanks to an assortment of flaws such as visible dithering, posterization, and misregistration, all of which bring the rating down to a bit better than fair.

If top-quality output is essential, you should look elsewhere. But you'll either have to give up performance or pay much more.

OKI C5200n

fair

Bottom Line: The OKI C5200's paper handling is better than that found on most inexpensive color lasers, with banner printing, an optional duplexer, and paper tray options that boost capacity to 930 pages. The 5200 also offers excellent text quality and performance for the price, but it drops the ball on photo quality and graphics.

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About the Author

M. David Stone is an award-winning freelance writer and computer industry consultant. Although a confirmed generalist, with writing credits on subjects as varied as ape language experiments, politics, quantum physics, and an overview of a top company in the gaming industry. David is also an expert in imaging technologies (including printers, moni... See Full Bio

OKI C5200n

OKI C5200n

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